Developer Luke Saraceni launches spray against ‘box-tickers’ planning authorities

Developer Luke Saraceni has launched an extraordinary spray against box-ticking government planning authorities following recent changes to the project approvals system. Mr Saraceni welcomed the bid to streamline the approvals process — after the State Government ruled to permanently reduce council powers in the matter — but said the administration of the system needed a major overhaul. The State Government’s recent announcement permanently enshrined the special development pathway created during the COVID pandemic for “significant” projects that allow more proponents to bypass councils in favour of the State Development Assessment Unit. But Mr Saraceni said both council and State Government planning processes were slow, unduly expensive and managed by bureaucratic “box-tickers”. He said a property that would have cost $50,000 to get to the planning approval stage 15 years ago now cost $500,000 to get through the system. He blamed an unnecessary amount of paperwork and reports for the blowout, claiming bureaucrats now demanded things such as detailed acoustic information and other information that was not traditionally done until the final design. He believes planning authorities will struggle to meet the State Government’s new 120-day time limit to complete assessments, claiming most projects took six to nine months to get through the system. “To be polite, it must be under-resourced, because it’s not a quick process, even though the actual structure is good,” he said. He later added: “You can introduce all the legislation in the world, but you need to get the administration of it right, or it won’t make a difference. “That’s where the big problem lies at the moment — in the administration.” Mr Saraceni blamed a reluctance by planners across the system to actually do the job required of them. He said they instead opted to tick boxes, and tended to defer or reject any application if there was so much as a small query or non-planning-related concern from another stakeholder, such as Main Roads or Water Corporation. He said it would be more efficient if planners managed queries and concerns by putting conditions on an approval. Planners should also manage issues by bringing the parties together to find a solution, rather than constantly deferring or rejecting projects, he said. Finally, they also needed to ensure they only reacted to planning-related matters. The extraordinary outburst challenges claims from premier Mark McGowan that the recent announcement was about cutting through red tape to ensure more housing. Mr McGowan denied the changes were a bid to undermine councils in the western suburbs. “It’s not about the western suburbs at all,” the Premier told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s about the entirety of the State. Making sure we have more housing choice, we cut through red tape, we get more jobs and more things done.” Mr McGowan reiterated that the State was on a global recruitment campaign to get more skilled workers. “I’ve got a minister in the UK at the moment trying to get police officers and nurses to fill the spots we have,” he said. “We have to house these people. So what do we do? Do we just say come out here and we can’t provide you with housing?” The sweeping reforms include the ability for developers to opt-in to the SDAU system with any multi-unit project worth at least $2 million — instead of the former $10m threshold.